Italki Review

Learning a new language is always a great challenge but it’s also a great step which can improve your career, help to gain personal aims, or just improve the general quality of your life. However, learning a new language or improving the current level of knowledge on your own can be a really tough task. Here comes Italki to help step over with learning a new language. Is this a decent tool to pay for? Let’s find out in this Italki review.

What is Italki?

This is an online platform that connects those people who are willing to learn a language and those who teach it. Italki provides the opportunity to access more than 130 languages. Among them are English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Russian, and other options.

The main feature of this company is that they offer only 1-on-1 lessons online so a student normally interacts with a teacher during the lesson itself and gets home assignments afterward. Lessons can be conducted via Hangouts, Skype, Facetime, or QQ.

One more peculiarity of this platform, that you can find a language exchange partner to simultaneously learn new languages.

How does Italki work?

Then, you can adjust the filter by choosing the price you need, the appropriate category (business language, language for kids, conversational practice etc.), whether a teacher is a native speaker and so on.

To choose a tutor, watch her/his video introduction first, check out what is his/her level of proficiency (C2 or native), read reviews about this person. Then, opt for a trial lesson.

There is also an Italki app which can be downloaded on Google Play (rated as 3.3); this way, you can participate in the lessons from any place with internet access.

For tutors

To become a tutor, you are required to fill out the questionnaire, record your introduction video, and submit your profile for verification. Please note that it might take up to ten days for Italki to accept or deny your submission.

How much does Italki cost?

The price for each language varies from $4 to $80 for an hour. The lesson usually costs around $10 to $30 per hour. For Spanish tutors, an average price is $10-12 per hour, for Chinese it’s $12-16, for French it’s $15-18 per hour.

You can pay for one class, two, or even a package of five in advance.

There is also a free trial option for every new tutor you arrange the first lesson with. It normally costs 60% of a regular price.

Also, there are many websites where you can find a coupon for a 10% discount for the first lesson – just google them.

However, notice there are processing fees to each payment so keep that in mind.

How much do Italki teachers make?

The salary also depends on the language you teach and your proficiency level as well as your experience. To illustrate, an English tutor gets about $12-20 per hour.

Also, be aware that Italki takes a 15% commission. You can get the earnings via PayPal, Payoneer, or Shrill.

Italki Reviews

Most reviews on Italki are positive ones, however, it all depends on the tutor you choose.

Some reviews on Reddit highlight that Italki focuses more on beginner students and learning options for them while there are not so many teachers to cover advanced students’ needs. Also, there are complaints that some teachers just ignore your messages about lessons. Furthermore, some people on Trustpilot say that payment and fees can be confusing.

But there are a bunch of reviews that students make great progress while studying on this platform. At the same time, tutors say that working conditions are good and the commission is relatively low (for instance, Preply, another online language learning company, takes around 30% and UpWork takes about 20% of commission).

Verbling vs Italki

Both providers have the working principle in common: they match students who are looking to learn a new language with tutors. Both offer 1 to 1 learning. As for the quality difference, Italki has more tutors to choose from and prices for such a service are lower. Also, Italki has a language exchange option while Verbling doesn’t offer any similar.

As for differences in making money there, tutors on Verbling can teach only their native language while Italki allows teachers to earn money having a high level of proficiency. As for the similarities here, both have a 15% commission for each class.